Factors affecting successful recovery

Early in my professional career, I was working as an ICU nurse and simultaneously working on my psychology dissertation. I have had ample opportunity in the hospital and through my private practice witness lives interrupted and/or destroyed from alcohol, drugs and obesity.
As adults, we use food and alcohol to celebrate special occasions and holidays. Children do as we do most of the time. We condition them from the time they are in diapers to copy our behavior.
I have written books on the subjects of wise choices and healthy living which begins with understanding yourself and following your dreams. My goal is to guide you in ways of teaching adolescents to make decisions that are in their best interest. In these weekly tips, I am offering to you ways that we can address the behaviors that lead to self-abuse so that we can help those children with whom you come in contact either through teaching, counseling or parenting.

Alcohol and drug prevention efforts that are targeted at juveniles should have three urgent goals: (1) reduce dependency on these substances, (2) reduce crime committed by those in their thrall, and (3) reduce the juvenile population in our prisons.
Ultimately, it’s all about saving lives and making those lives worth living again.
This may seem a complex and difficult task, yet the solutions are actually quite simple.
It starts with education: Informing teens, their communities and the public at large about the risks, complications and costs of drug abuse, and then teaching them how to prevent it.
Prevention is always much cheaper than cure … but prevention cuts off revenue streams from entities that reap benefits from addicted individuals: pharmaceutical companies and drug dealers. So prevention efforts may encounter some push-back, but they remain our best chance at saving lives.

Zari Alipour, Ph.D.
Making Wise Choices in a Disruptive Age
www.DrZari.com
Zari@DrZari.com
www.SavingourYoung.org

310 849 4680

Dr. Zari is a psychologist for adolescents and adults. She teaches adolescents how to make decisions that are in their best interests and empowers teachers, counselors and parents with the words and accountability tools that reinforce healthy choices.